Conversational Agents

Voice and dialog systems have gone from almost non-existent to pervasive in a very short span of time. But, today’s experiences still fall short of their potential to help people interact with technology.
PARC is on a mission to change this. We’ve been building dialog systems and conversational technologies over the past several years. Our approach is to understand human-to-human conversation in order to improve human-to-machine interactions. Our emphasis is on task-based, collaborative conversations. A person and an intelligent agent share a goal and work together to accomplish it.
Our expertise is focused around natural language processing (NLP) and machine/deep learning, as well as conversation and discourse analysis. We’ve worked with a variety of clients in the consumer and enterprise space – including building call center agents that guide customers through procedures and problem diagnosis based on reported symptoms. We’ve also designed conversational copiers for use by the blind and visually impaired. Of course, our eyes are set on the future, and we’re continuing to develop new conversational technologies to help knowledge workers in the enterprise space.
Additional information
Our work is centered around a series of Focus Areas that we believe are the future of science and technology.
We’re continually developing new technologies, many of which are available for Commercialization.
PARC scientists and staffers are active members and contributors to the science and technology communities.